No direct promotion
The confirmation of American Logan Sargeant in Williams defined the starting grid for the 2024 season of Formula 1. Substantially the ten line-ups will be the same as those that presented themselves at the start of the last championship, with the sole exception of the Dutchman Nyck De Vries, replaced during the current season by AlphaTauri with the Australian veteran Daniel Ricciardo. The blocked seats therefore prevented the latest F2 champion, the Frenchman, from directly landing in the Circus Théo Pourchaire.
This is the third consecutive year in which the winner of the F1 cadet championship fails to land directly in the premier category of motorsport. Oscar Piastri And Felipe DrugovichPourchaire’s predecessors in the roll of honour, had chosen to accept the role of third guide in their respective teams – Alpine and Aston Martin – in the hope that a seat would become available for them in the future.
In the wake of Gasly and Lawson
This plan worked for Piastri, who however had to risk the controversial transfer from Alpine to McLaren during the 2022 season, but not for Drugovich, destined to remain on the bench next year behind the Alonso-Stroll duo. To avoid this risk, Pourchaire – who is linked to the Sauber team at Academy level – decided to seize the opportunity for a new challenge.
The transalpine, via a post published on Twitter/Xhas in fact announced that will take part in the Super Formula rookie test Japanese with the IMPUL team. The test will take place this week at the Suzuka circuit. For Pourchaire the ambition is to follow the path of the various Pierre Gasly and Liam Lawson, among the very few non-Japanese drivers to have achieved prestigious results in the Land of the Rising Sun championship. The only non-Japanese to have won the title in this series in recent times – despite not managing to land in F1 – was the New Zealander Nick Cassidy in 2019. Spaniard Alex Palou – now a two-time IndyCar champion – also took part in that championship and won the rookie of the year award.
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